Fear
by Insanitas
Summary: "You told me you would always keep me safe. That nothing would ever harm me again. But you, Natasha, you left me to die, my blood a tattoo on your hands. And now, now I have come back from that darkness in which you left me to seek my vengeance." Loki/OC/Bruce Banner Clintasha (Implied) RATED M FOR SAFETY.


As Agent Phil Coulson walked through one of the lower hallways of the Helacarrier, he felt an emotion he was not accustomed to. That emotion was fear. Fear is irrational, fear is unjustified, and therefore, it had no place in Phil Coulson's mind. But it was there all the same, and it was very obviously not going away.

As he rounded a corner, the speakers on the wall crackled, and then sputtered to life. There was a pause, and Agent Coulson could hear light breathing, but what he heard next chilled him to the bone.

"_Hello, Natasha."_

* * *

**One week earlier**

"No."

"Come on, Birdy, pleeeeease?"

"I said no, and I meant no, so stop bothering me."

Tony Stark laughed at Hawkeye's irritation. They were sitting at the bar in Stark Tower, the same bar where he had confronted Loki a few months ago. But this time, when Tony looked out the window, he didn't see a burning New York, being ravaged by the Chitauri. He saw reconstruction crews and construction sites. New York was slowly getting back to normal, and Tony had to admit, normal was boring.

"I'll let you take the Maserati out for a spin."

"No."

Steve shot Tony a pointed glare from his position on the couch. "You know, Stark, if you keep bothering him, he might shoot you with that bow you're so eager to touch."

"I'm not _eager_, I just want to shoot it, like, once."

"Why?" Steve asked. "It's not like you'll hit anything."

Clint snorted and continued to polish his arrows. Tony narrowed his eyes at Steve. "You're just grumpy 'cause Fury confined you to _my _tower."

Steve flung the history book he'd been reading onto the coffee table and sighed. "He didn't confine me, he asked me to stay under the radar and unlike you, I follow orders."

"Uh-huh, Stripy, whatever helps you sleep at night."

Just then, a klaxon sounded once, a piercing wail that caught the attention of everyone in the room.

"What was that?" asked Clint.

"I have absolutely no idea." said Tony.

"It's your tower, and you don't know?"

"Hey, have you ever built a building before? There are a lot of alarms, and you tend not to remember them all." Tony pulled up a screen in front of him, and started punching in strings of code. "Jarvis?" Tony shouted, "What was that?"

"I am just as baffled as you, sir. It appears one of the high security alarms was triggered and then shut down completely."

Tony stopped. "Which one was it, Jarvis?"

"It appears to be the one in the private elevator, sir."

Tony swore. "What floor are they headed to?"

"This one, sir."

Right on cue, the elevator doors dinged, and slid open.

"Am I interrupting something?" Maria Hill asked.

Tony slouched where he was standing. "Damn, I was hoping it was going to be someone fun."

Hill turned to Clint and Steve. "Director Fury wants you both to come in. We have a situation."

Steve nodded. "I'll grab my stuff."

Agent Hill then turned to Stark. "You may stay here or come with us, it's your decision."

Stark looked at him with an expression of disbelief. "Are you kidding me? It's so boring around here I thought I might die. Hell yes, I'm coming!"

Hill sighed. "Alright then. There is a car waiting outside, when you all are ready, you may join me downstairs in the lobby." He turned and left.

Tony sighed. _"Finally_," he thought, "_something interesting."_

* * *

At the same point in time that Maria Hill was rounding up the Avengers, a lone woman boarded a plane, smiling at the flight attendant.

"I'm sorry to inconvenience you, but I'm not quite sure where I sit. Would you be able to help me?"

The flight attendant looked away from her issue of _Cosmopolitan _briefly to glance at the woman's boarding pass.

"You're in seat 27 D, that's an aisle seat, all the way back, there are numbers on the overhead bins."

The attendant turned her attention back to her magazine just as something dangerous flickered through the woman's eyes.

"Thank you."

Minutes later, when the plane was full and taxiing down the runway, the woman turned to her seatmate and grinned.

"I love this part, don't you?"

The man seated next to her shifted nervously ,"Not really."

"Fear of flying?" the woman asked.

"Nah, more of a fear of small spaces."

The woman patted his arm reassuringly. "Don't worry. It'll all be over in approximately…" she checked her boarding pass, "eight hours."

"Thanks." He smiled at her. "I'm Bruce, by the way, Bruce Banner."

"Cate," she replied, "Cate Hansen. It's nice to meet you, Bruce."

She turned back to face the seat in front of her. This was going to be easier than expected.

**Dun-dun-duuuuuun!**

**It's my first Avengers fanfic, so bear with me. I hope I can regularly update on this one!**

**I own nothing except my OC and plot, although if I owned Marvel I would do some very naughty things to the good doctor and Loki. :)**

**REVIEW PLEASE, NO FLAMES.**

**CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS ALWAYS APPRECIATED.**


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